a home for the holidays

There are 463,000 children in the U.S. foster care system; 123,000 of these children are available for adoption. Their birth parents' legal rights have been permanently terminated and these children are left without families.

In 2008, 75,000 children had parental rights terminated by the courts, yet only 55,000 were adopted.

Each year, one in five children (29,516 in 2008) who are available for adoption turns 18 and leaves the foster care system without a family.

Nearly 40 percent of American adults, or 81.5 million people, have considered adopting a child, according to the National Adoption Attitudes Survey. If just one in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.

-from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

If anyone sees this in time, I strongly encourage you to set your DVRs tonight for the 11th annual A Home for the Holidays at 7pm (central) on CBS! This special is presented every December by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and The Children's Action Network, with the intent of raising awareness about foster care adoption and ultimately finding forever families for the 123,000 waiting foster children in the U.S. It is always a great show with amazing stories about amazing kids and families. I look forward to watching it every year, but I continue to pray and hope for the year that it's not needed.

For more info, read the news release here.



Note to the Dave Thomas Foundation: I corrected the typos in the statements I copied and pasted from your website. You're welcome.